PixSylarians Unite! Or at least get acquainted. I’ve opened a PixSylated group on Flickr. We’ll see where it leads.

You can join here.

To celebrate (or deny) the fact that I just turned 326 in dog years, I’m setting up shop on Facebook and Twitter. Don’t really know what I’m doing yet… but then I didn’t know anything about running a blog when I created PixSylated last spring.

You can find me here on Facebook and here on Twitter.

Adding a copyright notice to your photos is critical before you send them out on the web or to clients. Fortunately, the task has just become a lot easier with Canon’s recently announced EOS 5D Mark II and 50D digital SLRs. Both cameras can be configured to automatically add your name and a copyright notice to each digital capture. [If you're not a Canon shooter, check out the links to important copyright sites at the end of this article.]

The process is simple. When you get your new camera, you attach it to your computer with a USB cable and use Canon EOS Utility to add your name and activate the copyright notice. Thereafter, every time you take a photo, a simple copyright notice with your name is added to the EXIF metadata embedded in the file.

Of course, in the era of Orphan Works legislation, it’s much better to append your complete contact info to the file. This is really easy when importing your captures into Lightroom [but that's the subject of a future post]. The fact that Canon now enables the coding of a basic copyright notice into their newest cameras, shows how important the copyright issue had become.

Click here to see the details in the Canon Digital Learning Center.

For more information on the importance of protecting your copyright, check out the great tutorial on copyrights offered by the ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers).

Two other great sources for info on the subject of copyrights and metadata are UPDIG and the PLUS Coalition (Universal Photography Digital Information Guidelines and Picture Livensing Universal System).

So you’re heading to Vegas for your first Photoshop World. Don’t quite know what to expect? Here are 10 tips to help you make the most of your first Photoshop World.

1. Rest up before you go – Seriously. Even if PW was held in El Paso rather than Las Vegas, you wouldn’t get much sleep. PW crams an amazing number of classes and fun events into a handful of days. (The schedule is here.) On Friday, for example, classes start at 8:15am and run into the early evening. Then, from 7:15-9:15pm, consider the panel discussion ‘The Art of Digital Photography‘ to be a can’t-miss session. And… if you’re really a night owl, get one of the coveted 200 tickets to Midnight Madness, which follows the panel discussion.

2. Plan each day and then be ready to change your plan – The whole PW experience is like getting a bunch of Photoshop appetizers – a taste of this and a taste of that. The courses are about 60-minutes long. Up to 8 courses are held simultaneously. There are 3 to 6 sessions per day. Classes are not repeated, although there are sometimes very similar topics taught by different instructors. A few sessions will likely be added to the schedule at the last minute. An instructor or two might not make it. So stay tuned for schedule changes and corrections. Also, don’t forget that there are numerous bonus classes in the Tech Expo. To help keep things straight, Dave Cross has prepared a helpful PDF that you can use to make your initial battle plan.

3. Wear comfortable shoes – Be prepared to walk, a lot. You’ll walk a long way from your hotel room to the convention center and back. You’ll walk laps around and around in the Tech Expo. Also, you’ll need to walk agilely (and sometimes swiftly) between sessions. The presentations are held on multiple levels. Between sessions, it’s like being back in high school with 3,000 people trying to switch classrooms. Almost everyone upstairs seems to head downstairs for their next session and everyone downstairs heads upstairs.

4. Get to your sessions very early – Most of the meeting rooms can accommodate 500 or more people. There will be large screens up front on each side. Get to your next session early so that you can grab a seat close to the front. Otherwise, you might wish you had a pair of binoculars. Forget about sitting in front of your favorite guru. It’ll be dark. He won’t see you. Find a good seat in front of one of the screens. Another benefit of being up front is that after the session, you can charge forward and meet your guru. Every PW instructor that I’ve ever approached has been very cool about extra questions.

5. Forget about taking notes – Your first badge of honor as a PW attendee will be The Book. It’s the size of the NYC white pages. Really. Last year’s PW book in Vegas was 903 pages. The Book contains the notes and screenshots for every presentation. Since you’re a photographer, you’re visually oriented anyway. So sit back, relax and enjoy the presentations without fretting about taking good notes – they’ve already been prepared for you. [Hidden bonus tip: While you are waiting for the Keynote and other sessions to start, use The Book to figure out which classes you really need to attend and which ones likely won't meet your needs.]

6. Carry water, food & clothing – There are a number of great places to eat in and around Mandalay. But, between breakfast and dinner, I don’t plan on stopping at any of them. There’s too much to do at PW. I carry a big bottle of water, a bunch of Clif Bars and other munchies. Then, after I get that seat in the front row, I’ll dig in and chow for a bit. Also, if you get chilled easily, you should bring a sweater. I’ve heard that the rooms can get drafty. I am, shall I say, “well insulated”. So, I’ve never noticed. But, if you’re built like a Chinese platform diver, you’ll definitely want to bring an extra layer.

7. Bring a backpack or messenger bag – O.K. You’ll have The Book, water, snacks, a sweater and all that other stuff you pick up in the Tech Expo. Don’t broadcast that you are a PW-newbie by cramming everything into the goodie bag that came with The Book. Bring a backpack or a messenger bag and look like a veteran.

8. Make new friends & rendezvous with old ones – You’ll be in giant rooms surrounded by hundreds / thousands of strangers people you haven’t met yet. Chances are that the people on either side of you don’t know anyone nearby either. Take the initiative and introduce yourself. Also, if you’ve attended a week-long workshop or are a member of a web forum or local meet-up group, send out an email blast and see if anyone else is heading to PW.

9. Bring a fat wallet or a big credit card – Forget the casinos. Instead, be prepared to find some great deals in the Tech Expo. Two years ago, I bought the complete Pulse ColorElite Pro system (that calibrates and profiles virtually every step in my studio workflow) for less than wholesale – meaning that I saved more than I spent getting to and attending PW. Most of the exhibitors will have special PW offers. When you get home, tell your spouse that you saved him/her the trouble and bought your Christmas present early.

10. Leave your ego at home – Even if your name badge says “Thomas Knoll” on it, you don’t know everything there is to know about Photoshop. For me, PW is about learning and sharing. There’s great comfort in being among 3,000 people who aren’t afraid to admit that they also don’t know everything there is to know about Photoshop. Resist the urge to show others that you know more than they do by asking questions that no one else understands.

Bonus Tips for Caffeine Addicts – The main Starbucks in Mandalay always has a long line in the morning – but it moves as fast as any Starbucks I’ve ever seen. So jump in line and stay calm. Strike up a conversation with that PW attendee right in front of you. Or, look for Jeff Schewe ordering that 8-shot, Venti something. If you’re coming over from the Luxor, the Starbucks hidden in the lobby there seldom has a line. There’s also one at the end of the bridge – just before you enter Mandalay.

Extra Credit Opportunity* – If you see a guy whose hair looks like this dog, come up and introduce yourself. (* = First, you have to figure out which one is the dog.)

A Final Bit Of Tee-Shirt Wisdom About PW…

For a photographer, the “stock market” does not refer to Wall Street. Rather, it’s the place that photo editors, graphic designers and kids working on term papers go for images – either because they have no budget to hire a photographer or because they have no time. In the golden era, which began to crumble six or so years ago, many pro photographers made very nice incomes through stock photography. Today, the rise of the internet and microstock has eroded the foundations upon which the stock titans, like Getty and Corbis, were built. As their margins get thinner, the amount paid through to the photographer continues to evaporate. Still, for the agile and the astute, there are many opportunities in today’s stock market. So where to start learning about stock photography?

PhotoShelter’s School of Stock is a great place. Originally conceived as an online archive for photographers, PhotoShelter continues to evolve with the stock market. Last year PhotoShelter launched the Collection as an online market for photo buyers. With School of Stock, PhotoShelter continues to gain momentum as an equitable meeting point between photographers and buyers. Check out their free tutorials – especially the Buyer Survey 2008. School of Stock is a blog – so use your favorite reader to subscribe to the frequently produced updates.

Another great resource for learning how stock photography works is the Stock Artists Alliance. SAA is the only trade association dedicated exclusively to the business of stock photography. There are many free resources on SAA’s site. Issue #1 of SAA’s [Key]Words contains over 50 pages of terms, experiences and business practices of stock photographers. Click here to get it for free.

One final thought: your photography has value… so don’t give it away.

There is no better value among photography associations than the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. NAPP is a dynamic association for users of Adobe Photoshop – and let’s face it, in today’s photo world, who does not use Photoshop?. For $99 bucks you get a one-year subscription to Photoshop User magazine, an online portfolio and access to an amazing range of online resources. NAPP also sponsors Photoshop World twice each year – on the East Coast in the spring and in Las Vegas each September.

From the NAPP website (PhotoshopUser.com)
National Association of Photoshop Professionals: Every day, we teach creative minds from around the world how to turn ordinary into extraordinary. Whether you are a professional or hobbyist, photographer or graphic designer, or, motion graphic artist or animator, NAPP is your ultimate Photoshop training, educational and news resource.